SEQUITIN, Camille Andrea B.

BSCE 5

September 5, 2015

The standard penetration test is one of the most commonly used soil testing procedure
because of its simplicity and low cost. Through the standard penetration test, we can determine
some soil characteristics and properties needed for the design of the proposed building. The test
consists of driving a sampler into the soil using repeated blows of a 63.5 kg hammer falling
through 760 mm. The SPT N value is the number of blows required to achieve a penetration of
300mm after an initial seating drive of 150mm. However, if the number of blows in order to drive
the 450mm sampler reaches 50, the test procedure will halt.
Last Saturday, on the 29th of the month of August, 2015, we were able to witness an
actual procedure of drilling and observing SPT procedures. After setting up the area, the first
activity would be drilling. Wash boring was used for the drilling part as the soil is expected to not
have boulders and rocks since this materials cannot be penetrated by this method. The method
consists of first, driving the casing to the ground through which a hollow drilled rod with a sharp
chisel at the lower end is inserted.

After driving the casing into the soil, they started to prepare the tubes and machines to
conduct the wash boring method of forcing the water under pressure through the drill rod which
is raised and dropped and rotated to disintegrate the soil and eventually cut the soil and force it
out of the casing.

After the soil is pushed out of the casing, the Standard Penetration will officially start by
dropping repeatedly the 63.5 kg hammer from a distance and to count the number of blows. The
number of blows is counted by the number of times the hammer is dropped to drive the second
then the third 150mm part of the sampler after it is driven for initial seating of 150mm.

After the Standard Penetration test is done, the tube is then pulled carefully in order to
take the sampler from the bottom and to collect the soil below. The soil collected was then kept
and sealed then the same procedure is repeated every depth until it reaches 30 meters or desired
depth.